We’re expecting a few changes and improvements to Google Assistant with the arrival of Android 12 later this year. We’re seeing some of these changes now as developers are playing around with the preview version of the next major update. One major thing that was announced is that you call on Google Assistant by long pressing the power button. But won’t this interfere with turning your phone off, you ask. It looks like Google Assistant will be able to help you there as you may be able to turn it off by saying “Power off”.
9 to 5 Google shares how they were able to use the power button for Google Assistant and Google Assistant to power off your phone. Well, in theory as it’s still an APK Insight post for now. Currently, to access Google Assistant, you have to either trigger it by saying “Hey Google” or you swipe from the corner of your screen or you long-press the home menu button. With Android 12, you will be able to long-press the power button of your phone.
Android 12 Beta currently doesn’t have an alternative to turning off your phone with the power button if you use it to activate Google Assistant. One potential solution is adding a power button to the Quick Settings area. But the other more interesting one is the two ways that come with the in-app explainer from the new beta update for Google Search. One is by pressing the power button and the volume up button at the same time, which some are familiar with.
The new thing is the second option which is to tell your Assistant to “Power off”. Currently, if you attempt to do that, it will tell you that power controls are not available or it will tell you how to shut down your phone. The “power off” command is still not active so we don’t know if saying it will begin the shutdown process or if it will open the power menu for you to choose the power off, restart, emergency mode, etc.
We won’t know of course which is the final answer until Android 12 rolls out. Hopefully, this is an Android 12 feature and not just a Google Pixel exclusive one, although that is still a possibility.
